


Time and Again

by little_librarian



Series: Grant Us Peace [1]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 09:56:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21318292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/little_librarian/pseuds/little_librarian
Summary: It’s not until the Doctor hesitates to sonic a door open that Graham knows something’s off, realizes that the Doctor hasn’t introduced herself to the girl and won’t let him or Yaz talk long enough to say her name.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Thirteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Grant Us Peace [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548562
Comments: 16
Kudos: 417





	Time and Again

**Author's Note:**

> Did I think that watching Good Omens would end with Who fic? No. But here we are.

Graham has barely finished counting the bricks in his cell when the door opens just enough for a blonde girl to be shoved through. She’s up as soon as the door slams, glaring at it as if she can frighten it into letting her out.

“They pick you up for being an off-worlder?” Graham asks. That’s what his captors had charged him with—no visitors currently allowed, apparently, and he thinks that’s more than a bit dumb.

“How’d you know?” the girl asks. She doesn’t look at him, just keeps glaring at the locked door.

“Your skin’s not purple.”

“Oh,” she says. “Yeah, it’s just sort of pink.”

She giggles and Graham huffs out a laugh to match.

“Don’t suppose you’ve got a lockpick?” he asks. “Or you’ve nicked a key?” He’s been in the cell long enough that he doesn’t much care how the door gets open, so long as it opens without a guard on the other side.

“Nah, my friend usually takes care of doors. Haven’t met a cell that could hold him long.” She gives up on glaring the door into opening and comes to sit next to Graham against the opposite wall.

“And where’s your friend, then?”

“Across the city, trying to stop a bomb goin’ off.”

She’s far too calm about the situation, like jails cells and bombs are as routine as breakfast, and Graham isn’t quite sure how to respond. He’s saved by the door flinging open with enough force to send it crashing into the wall. Yaz smiles triumphantly at him while the Doctor. . .she’s eerily still and staring, unblinking, at Graham’s cellmate.

*** 

“Hello!” the man says. “I’m the Doctor.”

Ryan, who had absolutely not expected a cheerful greeting when he snuck into the warehouse, says, “No you’re not.”

“Yes, I am! See, look—I’ve got my sonic and everything!” He holds up the device he’s been pointing at the shelves, and, even though it glows blue instead of orange, Ryan can’t deny that it sounds exactly like the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.

“The Doctor’s a she, mate.”

This, at last, gives the man pause. He stares at Ryan with his mouth hanging open, then drags his hand through his hair and says, “Is she ginger?”

“No, she’s blonde.”

“Oh, so I can be female but I can’t be ginger,” the guy mutters, turning back to his search. He seems genuinely put out, and Ryan is utterly confused and wonders just what his deal is.

“So, what are you looking for?” Ryan asks, hoping to get the conversation somewhere a little less weird. He skims his finger over the nearest shelf, picks up a cloudy grey orb that catches his eye.

“A bomb,” says the man, and Ryan jolts. “Not the exploding type, mind. It’s more of the, ah, silent but deadly type. It should look. . .,” he trails off as he turns to face Ryan again. “Well, it looks like you’re holding it—don’t! Don’t drop it!”

Ryan’s instinct is, of course, to drop it, let it roll one way while he runs the other, but the man has gone from strange to serious, and his frantic warning has Ryan tightening his grip.

“What’s it do?” he asks.

“It contains a neurotoxin.” The man waves his maybe-sonic device around the bomb, and he squints through the glasses he’d pulled from his suit jacket. Ryan thinks he looks a bit like the Doctor with his face scrunched like that. “If it shatters, we’ll be dead in seconds. The government plans to use it against the rebels; that’s why all the police have gas masks. I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“So you can, like, disable it or something?”

The man answers with just a smile, slightly manic, and Ryan hopes to whatever the people of this planet worship that the Doctor shows up soon.

*** 

It’s not until the Doctor hesitates to sonic a door open that Graham knows something’s off, realizes that the Doctor hasn’t introduced herself to the girl and won’t let him or Yaz talk long enough to say her name. She tries to hide the sonic with her body, but she can't hide the sound it makes.

The girl breathes in sharply and says, reluctant and a little afraid, “Doctor?”

The Doctor’s shoulders slump as the door swings open and they step out into the street. “Hello, Rose,” she says. “You know, you never did say who those people were that broke you out. It was me all along!” It’s painfully obvious that her cheerful tone is forced, but she soldiers on. “Me and my fam, really. My fam, minus Ryan. We need to find Ryan, but I’m sure he’s fine!”

“You can be a girl?” Rose blurts, bewildered.

“Apparently! I’m still getting used to it, but I think I’m doing alright.”

The Doctor grins at Rose, but Rose just looks unbearably sad—heartbroken, Graham thinks.

A nearby light post comes crashing down. Yaz and Graham jump at the sound, but Rose and the Doctor are so caught up staring at each other that they don’t even flinch.

“Am I gone?” Rose asks. “For you? You don’t have me anymore?”

“It’s been centuries, Rose,” the Doctor says. It sounds like a confession.

Rose looks down and nods at her shoes. Graham can’t help but feel like he’s intruding on something immensely private when he sees she’s blinking back tears.

“You can’t tell me—him—who I am,” says the Doctor, and Rose just nods again.

Rose takes a deep breath, like she’s steeling herself, and says, “Was it good?”

“Oh, Rose. It was _brilliant_.”

The Doctor smiles again, only this time it’s soft and reassuring, happy and fond and a bit sad. Rose hesitates for only a second before she smiles back, and her whole face transforms, lights up like her every feature was made for her smile. Graham doesn’t miss the way Rose pokes her tongue out, nor how the Doctor’s gaze goes immediately to it.

“Rose!” someone calls. There’s a tall man in a dirty suit hurrying towards them. Ryan stumbles over the rubble behind him, and the nerves in Graham’s stomach vanish at seeing him safe.

“Go to him,” the Doctor says. “Go be amazing.”

Rose looks at Yaz and Graham where they flank the Doctor. With wide, imploring eyes, she says, “Take care of her.”

Yaz responds quickly, like it’s a reflex, “Yeah, of course.”

“I can barely keep up with her half the time,” Graham confides, and Rose looks like she knows the feeling all too well. “But I’ll do my best.”

Mollified, Rose leans forward and whispers something in the Doctor’s ear. Graham doesn’t hear what she says—can’t even read her lips for the way she’s buried her face in the Doctor’s hair—but he does hear the Doctor say, “Always, Rose Tyler.”

Rose seals the exchange with a kiss to her cheek. “See you around, Doctor,” she says, then sprints away as Ryan rejoins them.

Graham knows about regeneration. He’d forced an explanation when he’d asked the Doctor what she meant when she mentioned being a man. The man in the pinstriped suit has brown hair, not white, but there’s the same sense of magnetism about him and the Doctor, the same full-face smile.

“That used to be you?” Graham asks.

The Doctor has her hand pressed to her cheek, and she doesn’t bother to look away from Rose when she says, “Yeah.” There’s something ancient in her gaze and ragged in her voice, a mix of emotions that Graham can’t untangle.

Rose and the Doctor collide in a hug; their laughter echoes out over the debris. Their bodies slot together with a familiarity that reminds Graham strongly of Grace, and he thinks he understands.


End file.
